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Richard Stanley to adapt Lovecraft’s Colour Out of Space

“It was just a colour out of space—a frightful messenger from unformed realms of infinity beyond all Nature as we know it; from realms whose mere existence stuns the brain and numbs us with the black extra-cosmic gulfs it throws open before our frenzied eyes.”

Considered by many to be one of Lovecraft’s best works, the short story Colour Out of Space will soon become a motion picture… again. This will mark the third instance in which the story has been adapted, previously as Die, Monster, Die! in 1965 and later as The Curse in 87.

The film is an adaptation of famed “weird” author H.P. Lovecraft’s short story, “The Colour Out of Space,” about a meteorite that drives people insane. Stanley will direct and pen the screenplay for the project, which he has been working on for several years. “There needs to be a scary Lovecraft movie,” Stanley said last year. “I want to make a bad trip film and ‘The Colour…’ definitely has what it takes to be a very, very bad trip indeed.”

“H.P. Lovecraft is the undisputed father of literary horror, and yet, bafflingly, there has yet to be a cinematic treatment that captures the dark beauty of the man’s oeuvre,” said SpectreVision cofounder Daniel Noah, in a statement. “Richard Stanley’s note perfect adaptation of Color Out of Space represents an epiphany for me — as it no doubt will be for legions of Lovecraft devotees around the world.”

Richard Stanley was once regarded as the next big thing in Hollywood, before the mega project Island of Dr. Moreau blew up. He’s a gifted director and has a very distinctive vision which should make this film a delight. I’m a big fan of Stanley’s other films, Hardware and Dust Devil. The documentary Lost Soul: The Doomed Journey of Richard Stanley’s Island of Dr. Moreau is currently streaming on Netflix and well worth a look.

One thought on “Richard Stanley to adapt Lovecraft’s Colour Out of Space”

Odd you mention Dr Moreau. I am reading that right now. Color is a good story but The Shadow of Out of Time would make a better full length movie. Color is too short a story for a 90 minute to two hour film.